The Role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Reducing Massive Human Rights Violations Such as Enforced Disappearances in Africa: Towards Developing Transitional Justice Strategies

Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism: Vol. 11, No. 1, 2011

13 Pages Posted: 4 Aug 2012

See all articles by Jeremy Sarkin

Jeremy Sarkin

NOVA University of Lisbon - Faculty of Law

Date Written: August 3, 2012

Abstract

This article examines the role that the International Criminal Court (ICC) can play in Africa, especially concerning enforced disappearances. The role of the Court on the continent is controversial, partly because the Court only adjudicates cases from Africa. The argument presented in this article is that the ICC has a role beyond prosecutions and that it ought to expand its role into restorative and transitional justice paradigms. In doing so, the ICC would fulfill its educative and informative, as well as prosecutorial, functions. Arguably this educative and informative role is particularly applicable to crimes that fall within its mandate, but even more so for crimes that fall within its mandate but are frequently not prosecuted, such as enforced disappearances. It is also important in ensuring that the number of crimes is reduced over time; indeed if the changes are implemented in a unified and strategic manner, the reduction of crime could be dramatic. At the same time such changes could reduce impunity for these crimes, which has been a major problem in the past. The Preamble to the Rome Statute provides that the ICC was established ‘to put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus to contribute to the prevention of such crimes’. Clearly the ICC’s role, in addition to its prosecutorial function and fighting impunity, is also to play a part in the prevention of crimes. Thus, if the ICC were to embrace these goals as direct objectives, it could benefit from a much larger impact. Obviously at the domestic level the state concerned would have to decide on the sequencing of the various restorative justice or transitional justice processes it intends to implement, i.e. whether to have trials or a truth commission first (on the role of the Court regarding sequencing issues.) By helping to develop an understanding of the need for restorative or transitional justice, the Court can play a role in promoting peace and stability in the longer term.

Suggested Citation

Sarkin, Jeremy, The Role of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Reducing Massive Human Rights Violations Such as Enforced Disappearances in Africa: Towards Developing Transitional Justice Strategies (August 3, 2012). Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism: Vol. 11, No. 1, 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2122979

Jeremy Sarkin (Contact Author)

NOVA University of Lisbon - Faculty of Law ( email )

Campus de Campolide
Lisboa, 1099-032
Portugal

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